A riding squad comprising SPS Technology’s technical staff and engineers from Harris Pye, Singapore carried out the repair whilst the vessel was engaged in a scheduled cruise out of Brisbane, Australia.

The SPS solution involved fixing the perimeter bars to the inner bottom plating using structural adhesive to minimise the heat input. The top plates were then fully welded to the perimeter bars to form the cavities into which the elastomer core material was injected. The resulting sandwich composite permanently restored the strength of the original structure.

SPS Technology carried out a heat transfer analysis followed by weld tests to ensure the temperatures on the existing tank top plating during welding were low enough to safely apply SPS to the vessel structure surrounded by live fuel oil tanks.

Despite restricted access to the location of the steel repair, the tank top strengthening took just 8 days without any disruption to the vessel’s schedule.

Conventional steel repair would have taken the ship out of service and required lengthy and expensive gas-freeing of the adjacent oil tanks before repairs could have been undertaken. SPS Technology has hot work, low-heat and Cold Work solutions that can be tailored to suit the conditions of the repairs.

More information about strengthening vessels and assets using Sandwich Plate System onboard Docebay and Allseas’ Solitaire. Also available is a video showing the work completed on the tank top reinstatement of Allseas’ Solitaire.